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He flashed a nervous smile. “Considering I was in the demon realm a few minutes ago, I’d say yes.” He looked up at the two crystalline shards with naked awe. “This is one of the Earthgates from the first age.”
The first age of the demonic lords, over twenty-five hundred years ago, when there were open pathways to the demon realm. Before summoning was necessary.
I flicked a quick glance at the soldiers. They were still merely aiming at us, but I noted that all the military personnel in the area were on high alert, with weapons in hand and ready. The ones wearing rank were on phones or radios. Trusting that Pellini would warn me of any status changes, I returned my full attention to Paul. “But weren’t there more Earthgates?”
“One for each lord,” he said with a nod. “Though they’ve all been dormant for thousands of years.”
That took a few seconds to process. “So how did this one wake up?”
“There’s a pair of crystals in Kadir’s realm that look exactly like these.” He traced his fingers over a zigzag ridge on the shard. “Back when the valve exploded, they appeared and started humming. Lord Kadir stabilized them, and since then I’ve spent a lot of time in their potency flows.” A smile lit his face. “My god, you should have seen the arcane polyhedron awesomeness between the columns. For a month, there were two cubes, then those merged and morphed into a hendecahedron with primeval strands inside.”
Pellini and I exchanged a glance.
“It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt,” Paul continued, oblivious. “You know how the effulgent binaries usually have opposite rotation to their associated quaternaries? These were—”
I held up my hand. “I want to hear all about it, but for now, you’d better skip to what happened today, before these guys crash our party.” I jerked my head toward the soldiers.
Paul flushed. “Oh. Right. Sorry. A few hours ago, the hum changed to this awful clanging. Kadir balanced the potency and harmonized the tones, but as soon as he did, the strands in the center tangled and started pulsing. Before Kadir could sort them out, a huge anomaly formed over the valve crater in Rhyzkahl’s realm, and he had to go deal with it. I stayed behind to monitor the gate.”
Pellini frowned. “A few hours ago?” At Paul’s nod he turned the frown on me. “That’s when you were doing the nexus shit.”
“That’s not a coincidence,” I said with a wince. “Neither is the giant demon realm anomaly.” My actions with the pre-anomaly on the nexus had obviously bled over to the demon realm and caused big problems. I quickly explained to Paul about the pre-anomaly and the various Earthside fallout. By the time I finished, Paul looked as if he’d eaten bad shrimp.
“God, Kara,” he said with a shudder. “That could have gone really badly.”
“Yeah, thanks for the reminder,” I said with a snort. “Lucky for everyone I managed to avoid destroying the known universe, and I even hit the ‘on’ button for an interdimensional gate. And here I thought this was a regular old Monday.” I cocked my
head. “Let me guess the next bit. About five minutes ago, the tangle turned into a pretty Möbius band, expanded as if it was going to explode, then merged with the eleven-sided shape and turned it into a twelve-sided shape.”
Paul’s eyes widened. “Yes! Then the gate glowed, and bam, I was here. How did you know?”
“Pellini and I sort of, uh, fixed that hendeca-doohicky problem from this side. Had no clue about this being a gate, though.” I gave Paul a careful once-over. “You seem to have made it in one piece. Did it hurt? Summonings sure do. Feels like being dragged over broken glass.”
“Didn’t feel a thing except cold and an odd spinning.” He darted a distressed gaze around. “The lords and demahnk haven’t sealed that anomaly yet. I need to go back. I should be there in case Lord Ka—”
“Stand down,” a gruff voice ordered. The soldiers lowered their weapons as a man in captain’s bars strode up. His pressed fatigues bore the nametag “Hornak.” I wasn’t looking down a rifle barrel anymore, but I knew we weren’t out of the woods yet.
Captain Hornak gave me a thin smile as he approached. I didn’t recognize him, which meant he must have been assigned here within the past week, but I had little doubt he knew exactly who I was.
“Arcane Commander Gillian, I hope you have an explanation for what just happened and can tell us who this intruder is.” His sharp eyes flicked to the Spires, to Paul and his unusual clothing, then to Pellini and me. “Because it sure looked as if this fellow appeared out of thin air.”
“He’s not an intruder.” I gave Paul’s shoulder a firm squeeze, surprised to feel him trembling. Face pale, he continued to scan almost desperately, like a kid searching for his lost dog. “He’s an ally,” I continued, “and we’re still not exactly sure how he got here.” I kept my hand on Paul, not only for reassurance, but also in case he tried to make a dash through the gate.
Captain Hornak eyed me as he tapped something on his phone then lifted it toward me. Out of its speakers came a voice, distorted by the arcane, but definitely mine. “A gate? Like, a way to travel between the realms? That’s what these crystals are?”
Shit. I kept my face as composed as humanly possible and tried my best to look as if I had not, in fact, just been totally busted. I knew the area was under twenty-four seven surveillance, but I hadn’t known there was audio, or that it could be sensitive enough to pick up a whispered conversation. “Yeah, well,” I said, lifting my chin, “I’m not exactly sure how he got here.”
The captain’s lips pressed tight. “A.C. Gillian, if you think I’m in the mood to play games, you’re sadly mistaken. Your ally will be taken into custody for a debrief, after which it will be decided whether he is indeed an ally or an enemy to the people of Earth.”
An angry retort built in my chest, but I swallowed it as Paul let out a low hiss and jerked from my grasp. His scan turned frantic, as if—
As if he’s missing a piece of himself, I realized in a light bulb moment. I’d known that Paul and Kadir had developed a strange yet close relationship after the lord took him to his realm to heal. But I was starting to understand it was more than that. My guess was that somewhere along the way they’d formed an essence bond—a bond that Paul couldn’t feel now that he was on Earth.
Paul edged toward the space between the crystals. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” he told Hornak, voice defiant yet shaking.
“Son, take another step, and it’ll be your last,” Captain Hornak growled as, with drill team precision, every weapon in a hundred-foot radius was trained on Paul. “I only need to say one word.”
Paul froze, but I felt him considering a dive through the gate.
